TheUndersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) is an organization based in the US which supports research on matters of hyperbaric medicine and physiology, and provides a certificate of added qualification for physicians with an unrestricted license to practice medicine and for limited licensed practitioners, at the completion of the Program for Advanced Training in Hyperbaric Medicine. They support an extensive library and are a primary source of information fordiving andhyperbaric medicine physiology worldwide.[citation needed]
The Undersea Medical Society (UMS) grew from the close associations of a small group of scientists. These men realized after a series ofInternational Symposia on Underwater Physiology, initiated by theUniversity of Pennsylvania and theOffice of Naval Research that there was a need to stimulate in the field of undersea medicine.[1][2] This group consisted ofdiving andaerospace Dr's Edward L. Beckman, Jack L. Kinsey,Christian J. Lambertsen, Walter F. Mazzone, Earl H. Ninow, and Robert D. Workman.[1] The key decision from this meeting was that Dr. Lambertsen was charged with writing theConstitution and establishing the society.[1] They also decided that theAerospace Medical Association could be the initial home of the UMS.[1]
On 10 April 1967, a meeting was held inWashington, D.C. to introduce the charter membership and elect the society officers and executive committee.[1] There were 88 charter members and the founding Executive committee was made up of Dr's Edward L. Beckman,Albert R. Behnke,George F. Bond, Wallace O. Fenn, Jack L. Kinsey,Christian J. Lambertsen, Walter F. Mazzone, Earl H. Ninow, Heinz R. Schreiner, and Robert D. Workman.[1]
By 1973, the UMS had grown to the point of needing an office and hiredCharles W. Shilling as the first Executive secretary.[1] By the next year, the UMS established its scientific journal,Undersea Biomedical Research.[1][3] The journal continued under this name until 1993 when it was changed toUndersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Journal.[4]
In 1986, the UMS changed its name to the current one. The name change reflected the rapidly growing interest in hyperbaric oxygen physiology and therapy.[1] The UHMS's purpose is to provide scientific information to protect the health ofsport,military andcommercial divers and to improve the scientific basis of hyperbaric oxygentherapy, promote sound treatment protocols and standards of practice and provideCME accreditation within its field.
UHMS definition of hyperbaricoxygen therapy (HBO):The patient breathes 100%oxygenintermittently while thepressure of the treatmentchamber is increased to greater than one atmosphere absolute (atm abs). Current information indicates that pressurization should be at least 1.4 atm abs. This may occur in a single person chamber (monoplace) or multiplace chamber (may hold 2 or more people). Breathing 100% oxygen at 1 atm abs or exposing isolated parts of the body to 100% oxygen does not constitute HBO therapy.
UHMS has 15 approveduses for HBOT as of 2025:[5]
Medical training in Hyperbaric Medicine occurs through a post graduate medicalfellowship. Hyperbaric medicine fellowships in the United States are approved by theAccreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) under theAmerican Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM), theAmerican Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM), and by theAmerican Osteopathic Association under theAmerican Osteopathic Association Bureau of Osteopathic Specialists (AOABOS).[6][7] The UHMS provides a certificate of added qualification (CAQ) for physicians with an unrestricted license to practice medicine and for limited licensed practitioners, at the completion of the Program for Advanced Training in Hyperbaric Medicine (PATH).[8]
Training and certification for hyperbaric technology is also offered by theNational Board of Diving and Hyperbaric Medical Technology.[9]
The UHMS Charles W. Shilling Library is the largest repository of diving andhyperbaric research and clinical information—current and historical—in the world.[citation needed] Thelibrary is located at theDuke University Medical Center (DUMC) Library in Durham, NC. The collection consists ofbooks,journals,reports,workshops,symposia, conferenceproceedings, andannotated bibliographies spanning the fields ofdiving, hyperbaric, andmarine medicine. There is a small journal and newsletter collection dealing with diving safety and diving medicine. The library has extensive reprint files of articles, cataloged byauthor, related to diving and hyperbaric medicine and dating back to the 1930s.
Many of the UHMS publications have beenscanned and are available online at theRubicon Research Repository. Other articles can be found in the DUMCArchivefinding aids.
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